Instead of a conventional rear-view camera, Cadillac has come up with one that offers either the standard reflection or the view from a camera on its 2016 Cadillac CT6 sedan and 2017 Cadillac XT5 SUV.
If the driver chooses it, the rear-camera view can be on full time as you drive, projected on the rearview mirror. It's convenient for when visibility is compromised by a backseat full of passengers.
It also worked well at night in dry conditions. During the drier portion of my night test. The camera doesn't really get "blinded" by other car's headlights, and I was able to pick up a surprising amount of detail in the monitor.
But there are some drawbacks.
Water on lense. Backup cameras can have trouble seeing when water is on the lens. The rear-camera mirror struggles when it's raining. While Cadillac covers the camera's lens with a hydrophobic coating that sheds water, at some point, if it's wet enough and humid enough, any lens will collect enough water to be hard to see through. During my foggy, rainy test drive, I could see things more clearly through the conventional mirror than the camera. Interestingly, on the 2017 Cadillacs XT5 there's a washing system to help clear the lens.
Angle. The camera is mounted right above the license plate, which displays a lower view than what's projected in a traditional rear-view mirror. So when you look at the camera mirror, you see the headlights and grille of the vehicle behind you. The different angle is most noticeable in stop-and-go traffic.
Glare. Other editors took the car out when the sun was low in the sky and noticed glare bouncing off of the monitor, making it hard to see the display. (Think of using a tablet computer in bright sunshine, only the tablet's surface is a mirror, so the glare is more pronounced.)
Distortion. The monitor view has a slight distortion. It's a wider view than you get from a standard rear-view mirror. I found I almost didn't need to use my side mirrors. The edges of the view are distorted. Because of this, I found the rear camera mirror wasn't as good for parking maneuvers, especially at night. I really think you'd want to use the conventional mirror for that and the conventional rearview camera (that displays on the center screen).
Overall, I like the rear camera mirror, but I also think it'll take me awhile before I'm as comfortable with the monitor setup as I am with a mirror. And, in conditions such as rain and fog, the conventional mirror will still likely be the way to go.
